Kristina Pérez

A massive improvement on Sweet Black Waves - Wild Savage Stars introduces characters who have more depth and are consequently much more interesting. Eseult is less whiny and at times shows signs of a growing maturity (at times, I could even admire her); Branwen is less angsty and increasingly fuelled by an entirely understandable rage; and there's a step up in world-building and politics. While I'm not entirely invested in anyone (except perhaps Marc), I at least have some sympathies now. Wild Savage Stars does enough to convince me to read Bright Raven Skies (impressive, considering how much I disliked Sweet Black Waves) to see how Pérez plays out the familiar legend within her increasingly dark framework.

Full review… (mehr)

I might have loved this as a mid-teen. The things that set my eyes rolling now wouldn't have registered. I might have been all-in for the star-crossed enemies-to-lovers romance, the ominous threat of the covetous guardsman and the occasional Otherworldly magic. If these are your thing, you may love it too - it comes in a wrapper of a thinly-glossed French mediaeval version of a Celtic fantasy world complete with tournaments and favours and trysts and young women who insist no man will ever come between them even as they fight bitterly about unsuitable young men.

As an adult? If I had not been obliged to finish it as an awards nominee, I would have DNFed. It ticks every box for why I avoid YA fantasy romance (instalove, romantic triangles, repetitive brooding, toxic relationships) without ticking boxes that I enjoy (world-building, politics, plot/character complexity). It's incredibly slow, spinning a familiar legend out across a trilogy by going in tortured circles. While it had all the advantages going in for being a Celtic mythic retelling, in the end I can only say: not like this.

Very subjectively 2 stars, but I won't include that as a formal rating - I'm not the target audience.… (mehr)